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Talk:Wise Up/@comment-24822712-20141106225130
I haven't been here for a while, but I have some thoughts on the season so far. I haven't gone through many of the comments yet, so forgive me for repeating anything that's already been said! Just a heads up: I do think about race/ethnicity a lot when I'm watching television (wrote a few essays about it for different classes), so please skip this part if you're not interested in these issues. Do not try to derail please :) Not sure the reasoning behind why Keisha's character is gone, but I feel like this is just a trend with Black female characters. Writers do not seem to know what to do with them besides making them a white girl's best friend/sidekick (Hazel, Marisol, Keisha to a certain degree). They get a few lines here and there, but there is rarely any character development. When POC aren't reflected on television, especially youth television, we notice. When we're just used as sidekicks and just used to "show diversity", we notice. I sincerely hope Shay will have the opportunity to grow as her own character, and not just the token Black girl for the Degrassi cast and fade into the background of Zoe's new posse. Perhaps we can get the same kind of development and dedicated plotlines as Alli's character got (although not to the point where Alli's plotlines became tiresome lol). Alli became a well-rounded POC character -- same with many older characters such as Liberty, Manny, etc. Are we going to see more of Winston? I hope so. Last season was disappointing in terms of his character development... Class issues: So Zig can afford a phone now? Interesting. The neighbourhood in Toronto where Degrassi takes place (Leslieville-ish area) has changed a lot in past 30 years. It used to be pretty working class, but now most low and middle income people have been priced out. That said, if the writers were going for a realistic portrayal of the neighbourhood, it doesn't surprise me that most of the characters appear to be from high income households and can afford trips to Paris. So when Zig came along, I was pretty invested in his storyline. I'd really like to see more of his family dynamics (not sure if he's back home yet). Also, why do all the characters apply/go to American universities?! Not only is that hella expensive, it is not realistic. Very few Canadian high school students will think about applying to Columbia or NYU or MIT or wherever Katie went, unless they're loaded or have dual citizenship or something. On that note, it's also not everyone student's dream to go to university. Never heard of any of these Degrassi students talking about college or trade school or working to save up for post-secondary or anything like that (not in recent memory anyway. I vaguely remember Alex working before she went to university). Relationships: Why on EARTH did Drew and Becky happen in the first place? You'd think the memory of Adam would deter that relationship from even being a possibility. Please stop dating everyone, Drew. Please stop focussing on relationships, writers. I do like Triles, but I hope Miles behaviour doesn't end up hurting Tristan. It'll also be interesting to get an update on that Mr. Yeates situation. SO happy Maya is FINALLY SINGLE! THANK THE LORD. Hopefully she becomes more likeable now. Also, did writers pair up Jenna and Connor so they wouldn't have to develop their characters? Where are they? It would have made sense if Claire had maybe confided in Jenna about her pregnancy or went to her for advice given she went through the same thing not too long ago. I would have also loved to see Imogen working out some stuff on her own, instead of hastily paired up with Jack. Also, the way athletics are portrayed on this show is very gendered. Why are only shown girls cheerleading/power squading/whatever Becky renamed it? Besides Jane playing football, I can't remember a plotline of a girl playing any other sport. Why do we only see the guys playing basketball? Judging by Shay's character description, we'll hopefully see more of a variety of sports. I'm getting tired of power squad.